Help with 3204 PTO (vac) belt adjustment

[slipnfall]

Hi Folks,

2006 3204, has around 450hrs on it. I'm having trouble getting the deck blades up to speed (a 48" deck) on pavement. When the PTO is engage w/the deck on, it bogs the engine down, which decreases the vac, which releases the PTO arm, engine spins back up, deck bog it down, and the process repeats cointinuously. The deck is lubed well and spins easily by hand. This does not happen when the deck drive shaft is disconnected. I have tried adjusting the PTO brake to both extremes - neither helped.

Near the end of last season I had the dealer cook and rebuild the carb (had a rash of poor gas), and that's when the advised that the PTO system needed belts replaced along with the PTO brake itself (I mentioned the engine bogged a lot when PTO was initially engaged, but it didn't do it constantly then).

This winter I went about replacing the two PTO belts, the main PTO chassis pulley (as I discovered it was bent), and the PTO brake/arm. Now this problem pops up. It seemed to run fine the end of last season, thought the initial bog was still there.

Any thoughts? The belts were tough to get on at first, but once I had them on/off a few times (don't ask!) they were easier to get on. OEM parts.

 

[slipnfall]

No one?

 

[CJ-8_Jim]

Assuming it has to do with the PTO system and not the engine (major assumption)...

With the PTO disengaged and the driveshaft disconnected, does the lower pulley spin freely?

If it does spin, then I suspect one or two things:
1) you routed your two PTO belts around the hardware incorrectly, and/or
2) the PTO brake is dragging because the brake return spring is missing and/or the brake link is disconnected/not adjusted properly.

Hope this helps,
Jim

 

[Dave01]

I've had bogging down issues with our 3204 under a few conditions when starting up the pto. First, if I don't let the engine warm up a bit before engaging it will bog down. Second, when cold outside the pto will start hard, I have to partially engage a few times to get the deck rotating, then full engage and its fine. I've never had that engage/disegage/engage problem that you're seeing.

My last, and slightly embarrassing, issue with deck startup - a few years ago I could barely get the deck to spin up, would stall the engine, but once spinning it ran OK, though seemed to lack power. Well, some idiot (me) had forgotten to connect one spark plug wire and I was running on 1 cylinder. Its amazing how smooth these Command twins will run on 1 cylinder, I'm fairly aware of engine sound and feel but it was a while before I figured it out.

I have to add that the 3204 starts and runs great, mows strong, has been an excellent tractor. These pto issues are just momentary, nothing I'd call a real problem in our case.

 

[highboy1975]

i was having similar problems from running on one cylinder also, but i only wish mine were caused by a plug wire. it would engage, then bog the motor down, and disengage, then re-engage again. sometimes it would bog the mower down to almost a standstill while cutting up a hill. i was very suprised that when i pulled the spark plug and looked in the hole, the piston wasnt moving while spinning the crank.